Greater Tokyo · Saitama · Kawagoe
Kawagoe Matsuri
川越まつり
Floats modelled on those of old Edo’s shrine festivals meet face to face among Kawagoe’s merchant storehouses and duel in music.
Next
16–17 October 2027
352 days away
Every year, the 3rd Sunday of October, minus 1 day, for 2 days
Future dates: 16 October 2027 · 14 October 2028 · 20 October 2029
Origin
It grows out of the annual festival that Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine holds on 14 October, together with the procession of the deity and the float rites that follow it. According to the official site, it began in 1648, when the lord of Kawagoe, Matsudaira Nobutsuna, gave the shrine a portable shrine, lion heads and drums and encouraged the festival; from 1651 a procession made the round of the parish streets. It was shaped above all by Edo’s Tenka Matsuri — the festivals of Kanda Myōjin and Akasaka Hie Shrine in the shōgun’s capital — and kept up with Edo fashions that arrived by riverboat along the Shingashi River. By 1844 the floats of the ten old town quarters had all taken the single-pillar form, with a figure standing above the balustrade. It was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property in 2005, and in 2016 was inscribed by UNESCO as one of Japan’s float festivals.
What to look for
Floats crowned with finely made figures are pulled through the town, above all along the street of old clay-walled merchant storehouses. The thing to see is the *hikkawase: when floats meet at a crossing they turn to face each other and compete in hayashi* — flute, drum, gong and dance — while the pullers raise their lanterns high and roar them on. The night hikkawase is when the festival reaches its height. At dusk comes the yoiyama, when the floats’ lanterns are lit and the musicians play from the floats as they stand. There is also the procession of the deity in its portable shrine, a display of feats by traditional scaffold workers, and a parade of floats past the city hall.
How to watch
The organisers ask visitors to keep moving and to keep to the left inside the festival area, to make room for small children, pushchairs and wheelchairs, and not to smoke while walking. Drones are, by law, essentially prohibited.
If you go
Between half a million and over seven hundred thousand visits are counted over the two days. On both days the centre is closed to traffic from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and bicycles must be walked, so come by train. The floats are pulled all over the closed-off area, not only at scheduled times, so if you walk you will meet them. In rain the procession of the deity and the city-hall float parade may be cancelled (both were in 2023 and again in 2026).
Where
Central Kawagoe and its storehouse street
Kawagoe, Saitama
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